Jericho
by ChangelingWizard
Summary: Jobs go wrong, that's the nature of Shadowrunning, they prepare for it to the point of what normal people would say paranoia and usually armed to the teeth. But nothing could have prepared this particular group for how wrong, or how right, this job goes,
1. Chapter 1

_I was honestly surprised how popular this story is, thank you for all the favorites._

_Obligatory notice: I do not own Mass Effect or Shadowrun, this is a fictional story and any relations to real people is completely coincidental._

"Talking": _Thinking/Digital Communications_

_Now, Engage_

* * *

**_2090.3.17 Elysium Tower/Singularity Industries_**

All was quiet in the star-scraper Elysium tower, well, as quiet as you can get in a multi-trillion dollar building run protected by one of the best private security firms in the world and selling near unlimited energy to the city it has nested itself in.

On the highest floor, reaching the edge of space, a room that isn't on the blueprints houses two scientists and with then a strange device hooked up to thousands of graphene cables that are glowing red hot. A soft blue glow emanated from the device itself. The scientists were maintaining the object but appeared to be tossing around theories about how the device was creating the energy.

"Could it be a cold fusion reactor?" the younger one asks as he checks the couplers and silently praying that nothing will cause him to burst into flames. The older woman chuckles and makes sure the device is not going to cause a black hole.

"Unlikely, a fusion reactor still needs fuel, even if they're cold, I say it's some kind of Zero point energy reactor, that's why we're up here, less disturbance from earth's gravity well, not much but you can't send the amount of energy we're outputting through microwaves." This banter went on for a few minutes until they heard a muted thunk from the door. The elder scientist presses the intercom button and asks," Is everything OK out there?"

Someone she didn't recognize, although to be fair no one really tries to remember the sounds of a person's voice all that well especially mooks, replied in a deep, husky voice with a light Japanese accent that was barely noticeable:" Uhh, yes everything is fine," what she thinks is a gunshot is heard and a muffled curse, "but would you mind terribly opening the door?"

"Sorry, only Alpha-3 class and above can open the door and only to get in, they trade place- why am I telling you this you should know!" More gunshots are heard and more voices with elaborate and colorful sounding curses being strewn about. But one calm humming is faintly heard, which is oddly more unnerving than the rest of the noise. She begins to hear shouting through the metal, they wanted in, the reason why was obvious, how was the difficult part. She pressed the security button, and got garbled shouts along the lines of: "Geek the Mage",

"Security breach", "Fragging Samurai", and "Technomancer". The young man was beginning to panic a bit as the speakers blasted what amounted to nonsense, but there was a security breach, and they were the targets, so when the door opened he fainted.

Standing there was what looked like a young male demon-like metahuman with red skin and horns that grew on the top of his head, black hair and eyes, wearing glasses, a black jumpsuit under a leather trench coat, and a tail slowly waving underneath. Equipped with a rifle and a chainsaw that has been used recently, as the chain was glowing. One word came into mind as she scanned them: "Shadowrunners"

"Sorry for the inconvenience," the demon says in a calm demeanor despite the situation, "but we have been hired for the acquisition of the 'MacGuffin'." the demon pointed at the device.

"Quit with the niceties and grab the damn thing already!" a tall, muscular, red Oni metahuman with small yellow horns poking out of his forehead, with grey hair and fierce blue eyes. He wears modern Street samurai garb that fits his bulky frame quite well. His sword placed in its sheath as he was holding the door shut with both his hands as the only normal human who has electric blue hair slowly welds the door shut, from the back she has a backpack full of tools.

"This ain't gonna hold them off for long and we are in desperate need of an escape plan!"

"Mr. Johnson did say that the device was going to be our exit ticket, maybe he meant that literally? Maybe I can use it to open a portal?" The eerily beautiful elf with long, silky blond hair and sparkling emerald green eyes and snow white skin, ventures as the demon begins to decouple the device. She wears a strange mixture of mage robes and combat armor.

"What are you doing?!" the elder scientist shouts as she tries to stop him. "You are going to cut off the power to millions of people! We're helping them, giving them unlimited energy!" she tries to reason with him as the firewalls are bypassed and the device is slowly freed.

"You are correct." the demon simply states as he takes the device from its pedestal and walks towards the elven mage. "But we have been hired to take this device, I do apologize for the inconvenience you are faced with." He spoke in an almost robotic manner but sounded sincere nonetheless.

"Are we sure he's not a robot?" the human female asks as she finishes up on the welds, she lifted her tinted goggles to reveal dull brown eyes and peach skin. "Also, gimme back my Chainsaw." the demon promptly returned it without argument, but everyone was a little creeped out when she began to hug it and whisper 'my baby'.

"OK, now that we have the MacGuffin, can we leave now?" The oni was getting impatient as he unsheathed his monofilament broadsword and readied for the door to break down as the banging became louder. The elf growled at her companion.

"Unless you want to end up in a wall or inside someone I recommend you SHUT UP!" She shouts. She touches the device as she begins to incant a spell as the doctor is knocked out by the demon and gently laid down on the floor as they gather around the circle. The circle glows brighter and brighter, the device begins to hum louder and blue particles slowly meander about them, they begin to feel lighter and they float off the ground.

"This is not part of standard teleportation spells correct?" the demon asks as a bubble forms around them. The elf's eyes light up in shining blue and spoke in a strange tongue. "That is not standard elfin either."

"Well sh-" before the human could finish her sentiment they vanish, leaving behind an empty device and a lot of angry stockholders

* * *

_**Somewhere, somewhen**_

_**Samuel**_

I open my eyes and look around me, it's a dark room but that is not a problem. I slowly sit up to see bars. I'm in a cell of some kind. No windows, which is not entirely odd. I stand up, realizing my coat and Ares HVR (Hyper-Velocity Rifle) have been confiscated. I check the door for security and find it surprisingly lackluster, the firewalls are easily bypassed by low-level hacker sprites. I walk out of the cell and look around, I see a human in a cell next to where I was, and he stares at me.

"I thought he was joking when he said we were in hell..." He mumbles softly, chuckling staring at me. He rubs the back of his neck and jumps as I unlock his cell with a wave of my hand. "I am not making a deal with the devil! I am not that desperate!" I tilt my head and shake it.

"Tiefling," I state, stopping him in his tracks.

"What?"

"I'm a Tiefling, not the devil, well, specifically metahuman-."

"Metahuman?" He looks at me confused. Interesting, maybe that teleportation spell sent me a lot further than expected. "Never heard of that. Some sort of extreme gene manipulation project? You know that's illegal right?" That gets my attention.

"Illegal gene manipulation? Why is that?" I ask as he looks at me confused. I hear doors open, bearing of boots on the floor, and loud clicking that reminds me of the insect spirits, I hold a shudder.

"Batarians," he growls as they enter the cell and point their odd-looking firearms at me and him. Insect-like, four eyes, and a horrendous smell that makes a sweaty troll smell like Lysol freshening spray. The man raises his hands, and I just look at them.

"What is a Batarian?" I ask him. The Batarians continue clicking at me, presumably angrily, and waving their guns at me. As I look it up and down the creature who slowly approaches me, placing the barrel of its gun at the center of my chest. "They look like infested humans, minus a pair of arms, vestigial wings, and additional fingers." The 'Bavarian' with the gun was about to pull the trigger, but I snapped it out of his hands, popped their heads in a couple seconds. "It appears they are also more fragile."

"Where did you learn to fight like that? Were you raised by an Ex-N? Hell, N-7?" The man, whose name is John Snow, asks me as he picks up the other batarian's rifle and follows me as I explore the ship, opening other cells.

I head to the engine bay, to find a batarian pointing a pistol at the head of an individual, most likely female, who is wearing some kind of modified, form-fitting, hazmat suit. It clicks and chirps angrily, shaking the gun at the head of the female, who is speaking in a language that makes me think of old Russian but more apostrophe heavy.

I shoot the batarian in the head, surprising the hostage, she stares at me and says what I presume to be a thank you. I nod and head to the bridge, John informed me that the ship has been taken.

I arrive, seeing various aliens, as Mr. Snow has informed me of the species names. The avian turians were chirping and clicking to the monogendered Asari, who spoke in an elegant almost old Latin-esque tongue. There were other humans talking amongst themselves before I came in, and everyone turned to me when I just looked at them and waved.

"Hi."


	2. Chapter 2

_**Omega Station, June 14th, 2183**_

_Jane Shepard_

I roll my shoulders and tilt my head to get the cricks out of my neck as we approach the docking bay of Omega, I look at my omnitool as I'm flanked by my old friend Garrus and my Cerberus handler Miranda. The airlock opens and as we walk out, the dock creaking due to overuse and slapdash repair crews. I look up and head to the Afterlife Club, my squad eyed carefully by every criminal and avoided thanks to our last trip here. I flex my fingers as I remember the reason why I'm here.

* * *

_**Earlier, Normandy SR-2, 3 Days ago**_

"Commander Shepard." The Illusive Man's blue eyes leveled cooly as I read the incomplete file of 'Poltergeist'. Apparently, he showed up a couple months ago on Omega, rumors say on a Batarian Pirate ship, although oddly no Batarians were found onboard, alive anyway. Other than that anything else we could find on him was vague and no one else that left the ship was saying anything about him.

"So, this guy is next on my shopping list?" I ask as I put the dossier down, quietly surprised by how thin it is, the files on the other candidates were novels in comparison, with details down to the numbers of nose hairs they have, or scales on their scalp.

"Correct Shepard, 6 months ago, a batarian slaver ship docked in Omega, it was absent of any batarians aside from their viscera painting the walls and their captives leaving the ship." He begins, "one month later, any gang fighting between Blood Pack, Blue Suns, and Eclipse have dropped drastically, here is a clip of why." He looked at Miranda and nodded, who brought up a blurry video of someone taking down a bunch of Eclipse. Well, 'taking down' is a nice way of putting it, 'slaughtering' is far more accurate. Their screams, shouts to "fire damn it" and "gun is jammed" were quickly drowned out by a glorious cacophony of thunder pouring out from a corner the camera couldn't see, and they were all turned into multicolored mist of their respective blood and bone shrapnel, and the camera was covered in said fluids and lost video.

I had to whistle at the impressive carnage one individual can create, and I want that gun now. I looked back at T.I.M. and almost gave him the puppy dogs on instinct, but I quickly repressed it and shook my head. Miranda rewound the video, and slowed it, stopping it when one of the flashes from the barrel of the gun, illuminating the figure. Well, what was supposed to be the figure at least? From what I could see there was nothing there.

"From what we can tell he is using some kind of digital countermeasure to block his image from the cameras." She tapped on them hologram and switched cameras, and each time never seeing the Ghost. "Whether or not it is post-op or during it isn't known, and any incidents that involve him are dealt with quickly and before we can infiltrate the systems for real-time data," Miranda admitted, her face never changing from her standard emotionless expression, but there was a veneer of frustration on her voice.

"So your job Shepard," Mr. Illusive began, "Is to find this ghost and acquire his services."

* * *

_**Omega, Present**_

"So, we're here to find the Invisible Man, sounds like fun." Garrus rubbed the scarred side of his head as we waited for Aria to finish her meeting.

"That's pretty much the gist of it," I say, tapping on my omnitool absently playing flappy geth. "Although it's not actual invisibility, he's somehow removing his image in the cameras, he's actually there, but the cameras just don't register him." I sigh as I turn off my omnitool, and look at Garrus. Half of his face is heavily scarred and a quarter replaced with grafts and some cybernetics. "How's the new eye treating you?"

"Pretty good Shep, I even think the new eye is an upgrade." He smiles and taps the left side of his head. "Although it is a bit itchy." He then scratches the side of his head.

The door to Aria's office opens and we all turn our head to see a guard looking at us, and he then thumbs at the door behind him, grunting "she'll see you now," and we all walked in. The first thing I saw was, of course, Aria laying on her couch- er, throne, but what was surprising was a Quarian sitting on the other side of the couch.

She appeared to be the same age as Tali when Shepard first met her, probably on her pilgrimage, what was intriguing was her clothes. Usually, most Quarians wore only their suit and was stylized from there, but she is wearing almost regal asari clothes that no normal Quarian could anywhere near afford. She was twiddling her thumbs nervously as she looked up at me and Aria and stood up quickly.

"H-Hello Commander Shepard, m-my name is M-Mene'Sedda nar Jaleya." She stammered out quickly and gave me her hand to shake, which I did with a gentle smile.

"No need to be nervous, I myself am curious about why you're here Mene." I cast my glance to the Queen of Omega, whose cold eyes drifted over her kingdom lazily, with the everpresent air of pride. But I saw an extra glimmer of pride in her eye this time. "Something you wish to share Ms. T'loak?" She gave a dark chuckle and stood up, strolling towards the window and studies the once mining facility, now home to thieves, outlaws, and slavers.

"I once had an Angel stalking my streets, killing criminals left and right without discrimination, making this place unstable," Aria began, her eyes glancing at Garrus, whose military training helped him hold his poker face. "But now I have a guardian Devil"

"Guardian Devil? Wouldn't that be an oxymoron?" I ask, crossing my arms.

"True, but in this case, I feel it fits them perfectly." Aria smiles as she glances at me, sending an odd chill down my spine, she looks at Mene and nods. Mene nods and brings out her omnitool, taps on it and waits, it dings, and she returns a nod to Aria. "Say hello Techie~." She purrs aloud, and I look around, expecting him to appear around a corner.

"My preferred codename is 'TechPriest' but I guess that is an appropriate shortening." my team spin around to try to find the source of the voice, we all eventually land on the hologram floating on the table, it looked like a strange feathered dragon, like something out of Aztec mythology. "Hello, Jane Shepard, Garrus Vakarian, Miranda Lawson, Ms. T'loak; Mene'Sedda, how is your pilgrimage going?" The avatar's head tilts as he finishes, and I get a close look at it and look at Aria.

"Is that an AI?" Miranda asks her hand quickly laying on the grip, despite the fact that Cerberus made EDI.

"I am not an AI Miss Lawson," the _not_ AI states it's head focusing on her, "although being worried about me being one is a bit hypocritical being that your ship has one nested in its systems." That immediately catches us all off guard. "And may I assume that you are here to hire me?"

"Yes," I say simply, ignoring the fact that he bypassed various firewalls to know that EDI was currently in my ship. The hologram turns to face at me, "Giant mechanical space squids are coming to kill everything in the galaxy, and you're skills and abilities would be a great asset."

"Understood, extradimensional or extraterrestrial in origin?" he asks quickly, his avatar suddenly being surrounded by code and eyes darting across it.

"Unknown, but the fact that we can kill them they aren't space Cthulhu," I say, I almost smile at how casual he states that kind of thing. "I feel like you've dealt with something like this before."

"Long story, may tell later, done." Mene's omnitool chirped and she looked and gasped keelah. "Something to bring back the Flotilla."

* * *

_**6 months ago, Omega**_

_Mene'Sedda nar Jaleya_

Keelah, I've never been so happy to get off a ship, I tap my omnitool on and check for any messages I missed when the Batarians confiscated it. There were messages from my mom, dad, and brother, I answered them, assuaging their worries and smiled behind my helmet. So I nearly jumped out of my suit when someone tapped my shoulder.

It was Samuel, the 'metahuman' who saved me from an untimely demise in the engine room. He held still as I tried to catch my breath and held my hand over my heart. He stands at 1.8m and wearing a full black bodysuit with blue highlights reminiscent of a Quarian one. He has black hair, deep red skin, all black eyes like an Asari melding with someone with glasses over them, a tail that is as long as he is tall, and horns that are 15 cm long and spiral upward and backward.

"Don't sneak up on people like that!" I shout at him, and he just gives me a confused look. He then closes his eyes and his fingers on his right arm move in a way that looks like he's typing on an invisible keyboard.

"Sorry. Habit. Require. Assistance." He says slowly and deliberately, and it took me a second to realize he was speaking in Khelish, having some difficulty but Khelish nonetheless.

"Uhh, sure? What do you need help with?" I ask, confused why he isn't using his omnitool's translation software. He nods and taps the invisible keyboard again and finally speaks.

"Acquiring. Omnitool. Currency. And. Work." He looks at me, and lowers his hand, flexing his fingers and waiting for my response. I stood there and stared at him, he was asking a Quarian for help, he was asking _me_ for help. Why?

"Why?" I ask, and he shrugs, the universal symbol for 'Why not?'

* * *

_**Present, Omega**_

It's been 6 months since I got here, 6 months since I met Samuel the 'metahuman tiefling' super hacker/hitman, 5 months since I got a job as a repairman for the Afterlife club, 5 months since Samuel became Aria's secret weapon on how to keep the mercenaries in check on her station. 4 months since we started renting the high rise apartment near the Afterlife and both chipping in to pay for it. It's way more than what I'm used to, and nobody bothers me for being a Quarian. I have a steady income, a comfortable place, it's insane, and I almost have enough credits to buy something for the fleet.

But this, this was too much.

I looked at the holographic representation of the only person she knew in the galaxy that cared about the quarians, I nearly burst out crying, but I smiled behind my mask and said the only thing I could say to him: "Thank you". I look at the schematics to truly take it all in.

It was a cruiser, an old turian one too, refitted and filled with supplies apparently, crewed by other quarians who were indebted here and couldn't pay out, emphasis on **were**. Some of the guns had to be stripped down due to damage, but the guardian system and torpedo system looked to be top of the line, so the ship could double as a mining vessel and a missile boat. Thanks to the spartan nature of the Turians, there were plenty of quarters to hold quarians, but some rooms had to be removed for cargo space. The name had been changed, it was originally named _Siege_, it was replaced with two words, one in Quarian, and the other in human, _Hope_.

"Take care of this ship Mene," I look up at him again, "reports about her says she can be a bit temperamental about her engine core, but keeping everything nice and clean should keep her happy." I nod and look at Aria, who's pouting at me and him.

"Are you two really leaving?" She asks, her voice cold, sending a chill down my spine, but Samuel seems unfazed, but being not here does help in that.

"I do apologize for taking away your talented staff, but I'm only taking away the ones that did not wish to be here in the first place, other quarian personnel are staying here, so you will not be in short of willing supply engineers." He says, and then Aria's omnitool beeps, then her eyes did something I didn't even they could do.

* * *

_**30 minutes later, a port near the Normandy SR-2**_

_ Jane Shepard_

I sigh as I wait for my newest member, they were interesting, to say the least. As my team headed back to the Normandy, Garrus, and Miranda a bit on edge. He told us he would meet us at the Normandy and told us that he would make himself known when he wants to. The ride to Normandy was uneventful until we actually arrived near the docking port, I get a call from EDI.

"Commander Shepard, I believe we are being broken into." I look at the ship confused for a second, when I see an aircar enter the docking bay, then leave, before exploding. "That was not me."

"Who the hell is on my ship?" I ask as we all rush to the ship and run down to the bay, boots thudding the floor and we gather around the door, Jacob and Zaeed already armed and ready on the opposite side. "EDI, can you see anyone in there?"

"I cannot Commander, they appear to be interfering with my sensors directly." Miranda looks at her curiously and her grip tightens on her pistol.

"He's got to be an AI of some kind, we could detect a cloak, but directly messing with the ship's sensors? That can't be done with a simple computer program." She states as do some final checks on my gun, and open the door, I look in and see somebody sitting on a crate, they look up at me and I hesitate.

"Hello, you must be Commander Jane Shepard, N7, Specter: reinstated." He states calmly as he stands up slowly, he stands wearing a full black armored bodysuit, and trenchcoat. He looks like a demon with his horns that spiral upwards, the red skin, black eyes and tail that sways side to side. His monstrous rifle, that is on my wishlist now, hangs on his back as he begins to approach me, his boots clopping on the floor is barely audible though, he stops a couple feet from me and tilts his head, I feel the slight stinging in my spine stop suddenly and I straighten automatically.

"What did you just do?" I ask as he finishes approaching me, and I put away the rifle as he extends his right, cybernetic, hand.

"Your spine was out of alinement, I corrected it, as a sign of good faith." He states simply, she was bugging Cerberus for months about it and he fixed it in a few seconds.

"How?"

"I asked it nicely."


End file.
